NNY Food Hub Initiative

The NNY Food Hub, based out of our office, is a regional initiative
to help local producers expand their production and become more competitive in the marketplace. The hub serves an area that includes Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, and St. Lawrence counties.

In 2016, New York State’s agriculture budget included $1 million
for an effort to launch food hubs across these counties. State Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie, who is chairwoman of the
Senate Agriculture Committee, secured the funding.

The Food Hub initiative is off and running with
Advisory Meetings held in the Northern, Central, and Southern parts of this
region. Pilot projects have begun in order to look at various aspects of developing an appropriate business model.

NNY Food Hub

Food Hub Team

What is a Food Hub

The term “local” in the context of food has a more specific definition:

In 2008 Congress passed H.R.2419, which amended the "Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act." In the amendment "locally" and "regionally" are grouped together and are defined as

‘‘(I) the locality or region in which the final product is marketed, so that the total distance that the product is transported is less than 400 miles [640 km] from the origin of the product;" or ‘‘(II) the State in which the product is produced."

As you can imagine, there is a bountiful and diverse amount of products that are produced within a 400-mile region. Thus, comes the Food Hub. A Food Hub is defined by the USDA as

“a centrally located facility with a business management structure facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produced food products.” By actively coordinating these activities along the value chain, food hubs are providing wider access to institutional and retail markets for small to mid-sized producers, and increasing access of fresh healthy food for consumers, including under served areas and food deserts. - USDA blog

Our mission

“Design and implement a producer owned and professionally managed NNY Food Hub to enable NNY producers to simultaneously expand production while developing new Vertically Integrated Modelsto provide sustainable premium prices to a wide variety of local producers.”